I Did A Thing!

Time again for my monthly post!  Ha. Ha.

Anyway, back in March, I replaced my kitchen sink, but I ended up re-attaching the same old, broken garbage disposal that I had, rather than purchase more connections to route the drains, when I'd planned on someday replacing that disposal.

I do a lot of costume work in trade for my friends in the SCA (see costuming blog), and I just recently took on a HUGE commission from a woman who traded me, not only for a BUNCH of cool fabric, but also for - you guessed it! - a brand-new garbage disposal that she'd purchased and then never installed.  Yay!!!

They sure do look nicer than they used to, don't they?  This one's even BLUE.

It goes with my house. Heehee.

Since no project of mine is ever complete without at least one supply run to the hardware store, the new disposal didn't have a power cord.

I have to say, at this point, that I have been drenched in the kindness of strangers this week.  A nice man stopped and helped me replace a flat tire on Monday.  Then Tuesday, at the tire shop, when I couldn't afford the tire repairs and new tire I needed, the manager there gave me a massive discount that he didn't have to give me, so that I could drive away on safe wheels.

Wednesday, my friend gave me this disposal, and when the power cord kit was a dollar and a half more than I had in my wallet, the salesperson at Home Depot gave me his employee discount so I could purchase it.  Wow!!

All done!  Wiring is super-easy.  I kind of love doing it.

And here, ladies and gents, is a clean, new sink, with a clean, new, WORKING garbage disposal.  It's quiet, too - standing right over the sink, I can barely hear the disposal it when it's on.

And this is the unit I removed, sitting in the enormous bin I've had under the sink to catch the leaks for the past, oh, like YEAR.

The gaskets had gone bad (probably just with age), and the motor flooded and stopped working.  The thing had been rusting inside (obviously), and had just been filling up with water and then leaking, over and over, since the motor stopped working, even though I wasn't using that side of the sink if I could help it.

Point of interest:  garbage disposal sludge smells like bong water and vomit.







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SUCCESS!!!

It took two trips to Lowe's, two trips to Home Depot, and lots of blood and cussing, but I finally got the water line hooked up, and the new dishwasher up and running!

That is a working dishwasher, my friends!  See the little red lights?  That means it's WASHING MY DISHES FOR ME.  I was in ANOTHER ROOM while the dishes were being washed!  It's almost like living like normal people, LOL.

Clean counters!  Clean, empty sink!

The brass part I needed to hook up the water?  I ended up buying three different versions, trying to find something to replace the coupling I couldn't get off the old machine.   On my last visit, a very nice man named Terry actually took the old part from me (still attached to the mounting plate, which I removed and brought with me), and managed to get it apart!  I had tried everything, but I thought it was stuck permanently - turns out I just wasn't strong enough.  Yay, Terry!

And that clean, empty counter space above the WORKING DISHWASHER?   No more Ikea dishrack and stacks of dishes!  My kitchen is finally returned to the way it should be.

Daisy was a bit concerned about the weird sounds it was making.  It's quiet, as dishwashers go; but she's only three, and in her life has never heard one working.  O_O






By the way, something else visible in these photos?

I finally put on the rest of the Ikea cabinet handles that I got in ...um...oh, I guess I never mentioned it, at least, not that I can find.  Look, new cabinet handles!  They're $7 a pair at Ikea, but I got these in the as-is section for half that.  Yay!

I actually need four more (have I mentioned I suck at math?), so, next time I'm there, the set will be completed.

I still have the smoky glass knobs on the upper cabinets;  the gold handles actually look really great with them, with the white uppers and wood lower cabinets.  Yay!


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Some Stuff Happened Over the Holiday Break

Things you will never, ever get from this blog:

1. Holiday stuff.  Ever.  

I had a great four-day weekend.  Er, five-day, actually.  Long story.  Anyhow, I got some shiz done. 

Firstly

This is your my kitchen on drugs. 

Actually, this is my kitchen sans functional dishwasher.  It's been that way for many, many years, and at first, I was alright with that.  I was just fine with doing the dishes by hand, and for years I just used the dishwasher as a big drainage rack with a door.  I had fantasies of ripping the thing out and building in extra cabinets, or pretty shelving, maybe something with a curtain in front of it, or maybe a pull-out recycling station. 

Then two things began to happen:  

- my love for back-strain and menial labor faded

- the giant drainage rack started getting manky

It would seem if you don't run a dishwasher? It doesn't get *washed*.  So now it's a giant dish rack with guck in the bottom requiring hands-and-knees scrubbing. 

FUCK THAT. 

A friend of mine recently bought a house in San Angelo, TX (far, far away.  Did you know that from my home, I can drive nearly five hours in nearly every direction and still be IN Texas? It's insane).  Anywho, he's remodeling, and he knew my dishwasher was a massive pain in my ass lower back, and so he was like YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE DISHWASHERS...

So we met up a couple of weeks ago, and I marveled at this man who could single-handedly just lift appliances into my vehicle!  And then when I got home I realized I could do it, too, LOL.  Not as heavy as they look, dishwashers - but still, no mean feat (props remain due).  

Moral of the paragraph: free dishwasher. Brand new, energy-efficient, etc. Yay! 

Moral of the towels in the picture: do be sure you really HAVE turned off ALL of the water before disconnecting, lest you flood your kitchen and shoot yourself in the face. 

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So here sits [most of] the new machine, along with assloads of dirty dishes, an unused and rickety (but pretty) Ikea drain rack, and ALL THE TOOLS.  

Aside: 

1.  Cat supervisor. 

2.  Also new handles on kitchen cabinets.  Update when finished.  

You would not belieeeeeeve the bullshit I had to go through to get the damn thing adjusted to the right height for the counter, and LEVEL.  ARGH. 

Nifty stuff you find during projects like this. 

(Fun trivia:  when I first removed the original builder's carpet from what is now my sewing room, I found a huuge dried paint spill, and a large message written in all caps in black marker, circled, with an arrow pointing to the paint spill.   It was in Spanish.  I copied it down and plugged it into Google translator.  Know what it said?  "CLEAN UP THIS PAINT!!" )

Here's where we enter the comedy-of-errors part of this project, as if the thing with adjusting the feet wasn't enough (that wasn't really funny, though.  I threw wrenches at things).  

Firstly, this little brass doohickey (or hootie, if you prefer) is NECESSARY to the installation of my new dishwasher.  It's an elbow adaptor that connects the copper water supply line from the house to the, um, thingy on the dishwasher, if the two aren't the same size. I need it for the new unit.  I couldn't get this one off the old unit, because it's glued in place with magic.  

Secondly, after I  finally pushed the old dishwasher out to the curb, I realized that the new dishwasher had no power cord! 

I had no idea I could write a text so fast.  My friend says, "Dishwashers are hard-wired into the house, hon." 

"Bullshit, my old one had a plug, dude,"  I say.  So he tells me how to un-wire the plug and cord from the old dishwasher and wire it up to the new one, which I did.  Keep in mind that I'm doing this in boxers and a black tank top, my hair a shambles, and my legs covered with mud from shooting water all over the grubby floor...out on the curb, as fast as I can. 

It is to LOL. 

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So, while this story does have a happy ending - it hasn't happened yet!  That little brass googaw is totally keeping me from hooking up my new dishwasher, but I'll be grabbing a new one from Ye Olde Hardeware Store in a couple of days.  

Oh, and also? The dishwasher saga is only part one. 

To be continued... 

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+3 Vacuum Cleaner of Awesome

Introducing: Da Bomb

Seriously, this little blue thing for the WIN.  Got a new vacuum this week.  A canister, for the first time - I dunno where this thing's been all my life, but I'm pretty much never going back.  I can't even describe the filth that happens to my floors with eight four-legged animals running around the house;  this thing made sweeping twice, vacuuming twice, then mopping into...just vacuuming.  Once.  0_0



Other things going on in the Land of Me: 

• MAJOR preparations for Gulf Wars, a big honkin' SCA event in two weeks, that I'm actually pretty prepared for, except for the part where I'm going to be spending the next twelve days sewing like a woman possessed. 
• I got the HOA approval to hang the storm door (seriously, guys? a month?), so, next spare ten minutes I get that's not taken up by sewing is going to get devoted to spray-priming and -painting the door and mounting hardware to match the trim on the house, and getting it hung in place.  Can't wait!
• I'm also in the process of putting the flooring - and everything else! - into the guest room all in one fell swoop.  Gulf Wars is out of state, and so Kress' mom is coming to house-sit and dog-sit, so we're sprucing up the guest room for her.  We got an entirely new set of bedding and linens for the room from Kohl's recently;  and I've been gathering furniture from Craigslist and friends.  I can't wait to show you! 

More updates as soon as I can!

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